Practical aspects of 13C surface receive coils with active decoupling and tuning circuit

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of nuclei other than 1H (e.g. 13C) allows for characterisation of metabolic processes. Imaging of such nuclei, however, requires development of sensitive MRI coils. This paper describes the design of surface receive coils for 13C imaging in small animals. The design is based on application-specified coil profile and includes impedance matching and balancing circuits. Active decoupling is implemented in order to minimize the influence of the receiving coil on the homogeneity of the transmit-coil field. Measurement results for a coil prototype are presented, including imaging experiments and estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio.